A screenshot from Michael Bennet’s first TV ad in the 2016 U.S. Senate campaign in Colorado.

Seven months before Election Day, Democrat Michael Bennet is launching his first TV ad in his U.S. Senate re-election bid.

The 30-second spot that debuts Thursday is designed to tout his record of accomplishments and define his brand early in the campaign — before his Republican rivals get a chance to do it for him. (See ad below.)

“Michael is proud of his record of finding ways to get things done for Colorado, despite the dysfunction going on in Washington,” said Andrew Zucker, who joined the Bennet campaign as spokesman Wednesday.

The early spot — part of an ongoing TV campaign in coming months — also showcases Bennet’s huge campaign cash advantage in the race. He started the year with $6.7 million in the bank and will report his first quarter haul later this month.

Top Republican strategist Brett O’Donnell is assessing the GOP candidates in the Colorado Senate race for the NRSC. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Inside a banquet room at Mulligan Joe’s sports tavern in Fort Lupton, a tiny town along the railroad tracks in Weld County, the Republican candidates for U.S. Senate made their pitch Wednesday evening to more than 50 party loyalists and one unfamiliar face in the back.

His presence is an indication that national Republicans are closely tracking the Colorado race — and trying to make sense of the dozen or so candidates in the free-for-all party contest to challenge Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet. It is also raising questions among the campaigns about whether the NRSC is truly neutral in the race.

The NRSC — the political arm for Senate Republicans — acknowledged Thursday it hired O’Donnell as a consultant and sent him to Colorado to assess the candidates in action. His visit comes days before the first televised debate in the race and the state GOP convention, where at a handful of candidates are competing make-or-break for a spot on the June primary ballot.

In the 2014 election, U.S. Sen. Mark Udall, a Democrat, and his Republican opponent , Congressman Cory Gardner, face off during a televised debate at 9News in Denver on Oct. 15. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

The announcement of the first televised debate in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate is sure to create controversy: With more than a dozen candidates in the race, who will make the debate stage?

Denver NBC-affiliate 9News scheduled a one-hour debate for 7 p.m. April 5, just days before the Colorado Republican Party holds its state convention, where delegates will nominate candidates for the June primary ballot. The Lincoln Club of Colorado, a GOP organization, is the co-host.

In determining the candidates invited to attend, 9News is facing the same heat that generated consternation in the early debates for the Republican presidential race and raised questions about fairness.

Unlike the White House race, 9News likely will make its decision without the benefit of independent polling or official campaign finance reports, which the entire field will not file until after the debate.

Instead, the TV station convened a five-member panel of political analysts to make the decision based on a single metric: Whether the candidate is “viable” in the GOP primary?

Do you know what made the Senate campaign trail more fun for Alex Siciliano and Chris Harris as they fielded calls from people like me about Cory Gardner and Mark Udall, respectively?

Knowing they had someone back home waiting for them.

The two spokesmen got engaged this year to their significant others.

After Udall lost the election, Harris went to work for Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat. He and Kate Conway got engaged on July 18. They haven’t set a date yet for their wedding.

When asked about the engagement, Harris sent a reply that made me laugh. If you followed Udall last year, you’ll recognize that every line was uttered on the campaign trail by his candidate.

“Falling in love is a lot like climbing a mountain because the first step is often the most intimidating and you can’t ever stop working at it,” Harris said. “I fell for Kate because I knew that through hell and high water, we’d always share our special way of life. Living the rest of my life without her by my side every step of the way would simply be backwards and wrong.”

Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., right, and Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., stand together during a tour of the Colorado Highlands Wind farm, in Fleming in northeastern Colorado. In addition to the wind farm, the two senators spent the day together visiting with wheat farmers. (Brennan Linsley, The Associated Press)

Republican Wayne Allard started the wheat tour when he was elected to Congress in the 4th District in 1991. Every year, he would visit different parts of the Eastern Plains. When Allard was elected to the U.S. Senate, and Republican Bob Schaffer took his seat in the U.S. House, it became the Schaffer wheat tour. Then it was the Musgrave wheat tour after Republican Marilyn Musgrave; the Markey wheat tour after Democrat Betsy Markey; and then the Gardner wheat tour.

A year ago, Republican Cory Gardner created a firestorm in Colorado when he proposed that the pill should be available to women over the counter. Now the controversy has moved to the U.S. Senate and to no one’s surprise it involves Obamacare.

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, a Democrat, and U.S. Sen. Cory, Gardner, a Republican, both of Colorado. (AP/Getty Images)

Last month, Gardner and other Republican senators introduced the Allowing Greater Access to Safe and Effective Contraception Act, which would incentivize manufacturers to make an over-the-counter pill. It also would repeal the Affordable Care Act’s restriction on the use of health, medical and flexible savings accounts to pay for those prescriptions.

Today Democrats blasted the GOP effort when they introduced the Affordability IS Access Act. Colorado’s U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet is a co-sponsor. The bill would “build on contraception coverage access in the Affordable Care Act by ensuring that when the FDA approves birth control pills for over the counter use, they will be covered without cost sharing and without the need for a prescription,” according to a news release.

Democratic Sen. Patty Murray said the GOP bill was like offering someone a single shoe: “You really need the pair.”

Said Gardner: “It’s unfortunate they have decided to bring partisanship to an issue that could have brought support on Capitol Hill but we are pleased they are following our lead.”

Sen. Mark Udall in Rocky Mountain National Park in August. The place has special meaning for Udall: his maternal grandfather was the park concessionaire in the 1920s and 1930s. (Lynn Bartels, The Denver Post)

I always thought Democrat Mark Udall’s first commercial in his Senate re-election bid would focus on his maternal grandfather, the first entrepreneur to bring loads of tourists to Rocky Mountain National Park. But instead of reintroducing himself to voters — important in a state where politics isn’t the end all, be all — Udall focused on his opponent Cory Gardner’s views on birth control and abortion.

“I’ve been criticized for not running a campaign that defended my brand and presented me as the authentic Coloradan I am, and I’ve certainly thought a lot about that,” Udall said.

“The rationale was that by showing that Congressman Gardner had extreme positions on women’s reproductive rights, people would see his other extreme positions. It didn’t happen with those swing voters. So sometimes, late at night, I think perhaps it would’ve been worthwhile running more ads extolling my successes and who I am, and how well I match up with the state.”

In fact, he made every one of Sam’s games since his son was a 9-year-old playing Little League football, then a standout at Chatfield High School and finally playing five years for the University of Wyoming. That’s pretty impressive when you consider Stratton worked for such Democrats as Senate candidates Ken Salazar and Mark Udall and presidential hopeful Bill Richardson of New Mexico.

But then this year, Stratton missed one game, then another and another — and it’s not even an election year.

The reaction to U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner’s legislation aimed at making certain forms of birth control available over the counter was met with criticism and skepticism by several groups, including NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado.

U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner today made good on his promise to push for over-the-counter contraceptives, introducing legislation to encourage drug manufacturers of “routine-use contraceptives” to file an application with the FDA to sell their products over the counter.

Sen. Cory Gardner is co-sponsoring legislation that would make certain forms of contraception over the counter. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

“Since ‘the pill’ was first approved 44 years ago, it’s been one of the most proven and tested pharmaceuticals of our time,” Gardner said in his piece. “It is safe, reliable, effective, and presents very few risks or complications for the more than 10 million women who use it. When other drugs have that kind of track record, we approve them for purchase without a prescription; the Food and Drug Administration has already reclassified over 100 different treatments to sell their products over the counter.”

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.